This manipulative thesis was spread by former MP Oleh Tsarev, who fled to Russia and pro-Russian telegram channels. In fact, back in February 2021, it was Victor Medvedchuk and his wife Oksana Marchenko who were sanctioned for financing terrorism. Medvedchuk is not a hostage - he was announced suspicions and the court selected preventive measures in criminal proceedings for oil and gas extraction in the Black Sea and for facilitating the activities of a terrorist organization through the supply of coal from the occupied territories of Donbass. He should be under house arrest, but Medvedchuk fled his estate at the beginning of Russia's large-scale aggression against Ukraine. In addition, Tsaryov tries to present the proposal to exchange Medvedchuk for Ukrainian defenders captured by Russia as "proof" that "there is a civil war going on in Ukraine. This is refuted even by the Russian government, which, although it still calls the war in Ukraine a "special operation," confirms the presence of Russian troops on Ukrainian territory.

This assertion is spreading en masse on social networks. In particular, the posts quote an excerpt from an interview of a "refugee from Ukraine" to Spanish television, in which he allegedly admits the torture of civilians by Ukrainian border guards. According to StopFake, the video begins with a guest in a news program on the Antena television channel saying that he and eight other men on the border between Ukraine and Poland allegedly "wanted to be beaten" by Ukrainian border guards. Based on this statement, network users write that Oleh - that is the name of the program's guest - confirms the torture of civilians by Ukrainian "security forces". However, as the fact checkers point out, the circulating excerpt of the interview is taken out of context and misleads network users. "From the full version of Oleh's interview we learn that the man had already made several unsuccessful attempts to leave Ukraine at the time of the interview. According to him, he and several other men tried to cross first the Ukrainian-Hungarian border and then the Ukrainian-Polish border through different checkpoints, but Ukrainian border guards refused him the right to leave Ukraine. He claims that he could not leave the country for 6 days because of the actions of the officers of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, who sent him for questioning, behaved very rudely to him, threw his passport in his face, etc. In fact, the actions of the border guards complied with the norms of the Ukrainian wartime legislation, and the statement about the order not to let all the men leave the country was not true at all," the fact checkers wrote. More details.

Information that these banks have cancelled credit vacations for their customers is spreading in social networks, in particular in telegram channels. The message says that these banks are now writing off interest on loans, driving Ukrainians into "minus". However, as the fact checker of the project "Spooner" found out, this is a manipulation. "Credit vacations are preferential terms of the contract, when customers have the right not to make the mandatory minimum payment, which is especially relevant in the case of being in a war zone or due to loss of income. PrivatBank's credit vacations for credit cards are valid till June 1, 2022. So, we can conclude that the credit vacations - it is preferential terms of the contract, when customers have the right not to make the mandatory minimum payment, the bank will not penalize for late payments, but they do not mean the absence of interest for the use of credit funds. We also could not find information on the cancellation of credit vacations on the Monobank's website," write the fact checkers.

PrivatBank explained that it continues to be fully responsible for the deposits of Ukrainians regardless of the circumstances and adds that the standard terms of the card grace period remain unchanged. "Credit vacations do not mean no interest for the use of credit funds," explains the speaker of PrivatBank Dokia Kuzmenko. However, in addition to the "vacations," in March PrivatBank set a credit rate of 0.001%, practically making the use of credit funds free. "We did this to support all of our customers and being aware of the more pressing problems facing the country. Our bank and customers understand that the banking system has to work to provide a front and a rear. The economic front is also very important to winning. And that's why, as of April 1, we partially brought back some rates, while reducing them from the pre-war level. For example, now we set the preferential credit rate at 1.7%, which is half as much as before the war. Interest will still be charged in May, but repayment will not be obligatory until June 1 under the credit vacations," the bank explained to the fact checkers. Accordingly, the message that banks canceled the credit vacations and accrued interest, which "drive Ukrainians into deficit," is now a manipulation.

According to the Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, such information about Russia's alleged "victory" in the war in Ukraine is actively spread by propagandists.

"To spread this thesis, the Kremlin propaganda, in addition to its own pseudo-experts, uses a supporter of Putin's regime, former US Marine Brian Berletik. This "expert" in the English- and Russian-language information segments talks about the "Syrian scenario", saying that "the Ukrainian military is killing its own population in order to frame Russia". Berletik says that "'in this way the Ukrainians are trying to reduce the pace of the Russian army's advance. In the absence of real victories in combat operations, the enemy resorts to informational terrorism of the Ukrainian population. People exhausted by the war can form a false impression about the situation on the front. In Russia, in this way the Kremlin is trying to record in the information field the alleged "achieved goals of the special operation in Ukraine" in order to later pass off pseudo-facts as evidence of victory," the center said in its report. As a reminder, the comparison of the events in Ukraine with the events in Syria by Russian propagandists appeared as early as last week. for example, propagandists compared the tragedy in Ukrainian Bucha with the events in Syrian Duma, calling both cases a ruling.

According to the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, Russian propagandists are spreading information that people in Novaya Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, are going to rallies "for Russia. According to the department, Russian propaganda is trying to create the illusion of support for the Kafirs by the citizens of Ukraine. "To the showy handouts of humanitarian aid and interviews with paid actors talking about the horrors of the Ukrainian authorities are now being added to the paid rallies. In contrast to the rallies of real Kherson Oblast residents, participants in the so-called pro-Russian rally are few in number, look confused, and show little enthusiasm. Next time the Russians will hire more protesters and put on music so they won't be bored," the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection reported. It should be noted that in Russian-occupied cities, Ukrainians fight back and come out to mass pro-Ukrainian rallies. There have been cases when the Russian military reacted aggressively to protests and opened fire on civilians. In particular, this happened in Kakhovka in early April.

The Sunday Express, sponsored by the Washington Institute for Democracy, published a poll in which 52 percent of respondents chose to dismiss the U.S. president and 43 percent chose to dismiss the Russian president as the best option for America. The poll also predicts Donald Trump's return to the White House. The Center for Countering Disinformation believes the poll results are manipulative, as the question was asked incorrectly (Americans are obviously more concerned about domestic issues than the fate of Russia) and there are questions about the impartiality of the Democracy Institute. According to another poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 92 percent of Americans have little or no confidence in Putin.

This is how propagandists try to instill the feeling that "dozens, hundreds, thousands" of people in the world support Russia and "know the truth.

In a number of countries (Cyprus, Georgia, Germany, etc.) actions did take place; propagandists distribute videos of people standing with Russian flags and lighting Z-shaped candles. However, there is a lot of manipulation around this message. In particular, anonymous telegram channels do not show how these actions ended. For example, according to the distributed video, the motor rally in Cyprus ended with a traffic accident and the burning of the Russian flag. Propaganda is also trying to use these facts to its advantage.

The videos circulated about the rallies resort to the classic technique of creating fakes. For example, they show the front row of the rally in such a way that it is not visible how many people are behind it. Or they make a video from a car with the Russian Federation flags flying, but none of the other cars in the "column" have them. Apparently, there are so few videos and photos of Russian support abroad that it is necessary to use footage in which the apparent number of protesters is very small. According to DW, 600 people (there are about 1.2 million Russians in Germany) showed up at the rally in support of Russia in Frankfurt on April 9. By comparison, more than 30,000 people showed up in Tallinn on February 26 to support Ukraine, according to calculations by the Estonian Interior Ministry.

Anonymous telegram channels are again distributing fragments of the 2017 interview about the "buttons" to press in order to influence people. The publications don't give the date of the video, which can mislead some of the audience into thinking the interview is fresh.

Besides, one can notice and easily check that in the distributed fragment Arestovich answers to another question of the journalist. According to the cut fragment, the presenter asks questions about means of political manipulation. In the original video, Arestovich searches his Facebook post for the sensitive places people should click on to get the attention of any collective and ask a certain question on the public agenda. As he searches, the host asks the guest how much more Ukrainian propaganda has become compared to Russian propaganda. Arestovich briefly compared, but that moment also did not make it into the edited video. Throughout the interview, Arestovich does mention the Office of the President, but in the context of the so-called MihoMaidan of 2017-2018 - events relevant at the time of the conversation.

Reports from anonymous telegram channels about the "catastrophic" level of theft of humanitarian aid inside Ukraine are increasing.

According to volunteers' insights, there are indeed private cases of "redistribution" of goods; this will be dealt with by law enforcement officers. The origin of the data about 80% theft is unknown, so we assume that this is a random number, designed to reflect the desire of foreigners to help Ukraine.

There are many time-tested charitable and volunteer initiatives in Ukraine. They have formed a network of personal contacts and send aid without intermediaries to minimize the risk of theft.

An example of a report from the Pills Foundation since the beginning of the war.

Anonymous telegram channels spread these four messages side by side to form a false logical connection: the population's interest in the war is declining; the cases of Bucha, Irpen and Kramatorsk have not had the expected effect on the world community; it will become increasingly difficult to draw attention to the "tragedies and emergencies"; the crisis in Ukraine will worsen, and so will the world. The goal of manipulation is to inspire judgments that are value judgments. They are often attributed to anonymous and authoritative "sources" to give them weight.

The main message is "Russia is not using Tochka-U." But in fact it is not. Despite the message that it has not been using "this type of weaponry" since 2022, Russia used Tochka-U during "exercises" with Belarusian troops just before the invasion of Ukraine in February. Also, IndormNapalm volunteers recorded that Russia had discounted its own Tochka-U complexes specifically for the invasion forces. Media expert Viktor Trehubov reminds us of this.

This is the information spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. However, according to the UN Refugee Agency, as of March 30, 4 million people - about 10% of Ukraine's total population - had left Ukraine abroad, and at least 6.5 million more had been forced to leave their homes and moved to other areas of Ukraine. . Therefore, the statements from pro-Russian telegram channels cannot be trusted, because it is not known where the propagandists got the figure of 8 million from, and as of what date they recorded such data. Recall that in such cases, only data from official sources should be considered. In addition, according to a Razumkov Center survey, as of April 5, 79% of refugees from Ukraine plan to return home after the war ends. In reports that many propagandists also claim that this is the so-called "Zelenskyy arithmetic," as if blaming the Ukrainian authorities for this situation. However, people did not leave Ukraine en masse until Russia launched a full-scale invasion and began killing Ukrainian civilians and military personnel.

Russian propagandists began spreading such a thesis after publicizing the crimes committed by the Russian military in Bucha. According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, this line of behavior was developed by Russian propagandists before the UN Security Council meeting on the crimes of the occupiers in Bucha, when the Kremlin tried to shift responsibility for the torture of civilians onto the Ukrainian military. .

"On April 5, Russia's UN post-appointed representative voiced Russia's official made-up position that "the Russian military left Bucha in vain as agreed upon with Kiev." After the UN did not respond to Russia's pseudo-version of events, Dmitry Peskov continued to spread the "agreement" thesis. However, there was no agreement. Russia, in particular, has repeatedly pointed this out. The occupiers retreated under the onslaught of the AFU. Now, in order to cover up the defeat, the Kremlin is trying to misinform the world 'retroactively,'" the Center said in a statement.

This is the thesis of pro-Russian telegram channels referring to the words of the mayor of Russian-occupied Kherson in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda. They say that the head of the city, who "drowned for Kiev and Ukraine," supported Russia for the first time, saying that the Ukrainian government ignored the city's problems during the entire period of independence and did not send any budgetary funds to Kherson, and since 2014 (i.e. after the Revolution of Dignity and the annexation of Crimea) the situation has become even worse. In fact, the head of Kherson Ihor Kolykhaiev in an interview with Sevgil Musaeva does say that Kherson region has "sagged" economically over the past 8 years, but he says nothing about how the situation in the region has deteriorated throughout the years of Ukraine's independence. Also Ihor Kolykhaiev did not take the Russian side and there is no mention in the interview of his commitment to the Russian army. With the interviewer, he discusses the situation in the city, the probable causes of the occupation, and why he did not leave the city at the beginning of the war, as some local officials did. He also added that he "always asks the President's Office not to forget about the city," but one cannot conclude from these words that Ihor Kolykhaiev defected to Russia.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Russia promotes in the English-language information space the thesis that Africa allegedly actively supports Russia's military actions on the territory of Ukraine.

""The Moscow Times Russian website published an article about Africa's increased support for Russia thanks to pro-Kremlin propaganda in social networks and the media. In particular, the author refers to "authoritative" figures loyal to Putin - African pan-Africanist politician Cami Sebu, as well as Ugandan Lieutenant General Muhozi Kainerugabu," according to the Center.

However, the fact that there is mass support for Russia in African countries is a manipulation. On March 2, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that Russia immediately cease military action in Ukraine, the Center reported. Then out of 54 African member states, only Eritrea voted against it, so one cannot speak of any mass support, given this. "In addition, according to the ITU, as of 2021, only 33 percent of Africa's population used the Internet, so the effectiveness of Kremlin propaganda in the region is somewhat exaggerated," the Center notes.

Russian media disseminated a quote from EU High Representative Josep Borrel that the Russian ruble allegedly "resists sanctions well. на своей специализированной радио COPE." Это , Borrel did не express a passion для российской экономики," Center explained.

Anonymous telegram channels controlled by Russian special services have been circulating reports that President Vladimir Zelenskyy is allegedly being guarded by foreign mercenaries - supposedly he does not trust Ukrainian ones. This report, as well as the manipulative conclusions, rests entirely on the fact that one of the defenders accompanying the president to Bucha has the Ukrainian flag upside down on his chevron. There could be many explanations for this, from "the wrong chevron" to "the identification mark of a certain group" (e.g., the inverted Ukrainian flag is used by Azov) or "an indication of the state of war." The military also confirms this to Media Detector. In fact, the Ukrainian flag we are used to - blue on top, yellow on the bottom - approved only in 1918. There is also an opinion that the flag is turned upside down as a sign of distress or war. More about this myth was written by "On the other side of the news". In addition, the footage from Bucha shows Zelenskyy's security guard, the first deputy head of the Department - the head of the Security Service of the President of Ukraine of the State Security Directorate, Maksym Donets, constantly visible.

Russian propaganda spreads a fake that "Western countries supply low-quality and outdated weapons to Ukraine," or that "it is simply impossible to stop cruise missile strikes with Javelin and Stinger. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council denied these reports, recalling that since February 25, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has regularly reported on downed Russian cruise missiles: over the Vinnitsa, Kherson, Kharkov, and Nikolaev regions. "In this way the aggressor is trying to sow panic among the population. Having met resistance in the temporarily occupied territories, the enemy resorts to information terrorism in order to demoralize Ukrainians and stop their resistance, the Center said. - In this way, the enemy is probably already preparing the information field for victorious messages about "new liberated settlements in Donbass, which will be presented as territories under temporary occupation since 2014".

Anonymous telegrams controlled by Russian special services spread the message that "Ukraine has already lost those who were forced to go abroad. These manipulative messages state that "data from sociologists" show that Ukrainians who were forced to leave for Western countries because of Russia's war do not plan to return. In fact, Razumkov Center polls show that 79 percent of refugees plan to return to Ukraine after the war ends, 11 percent of Ukrainians are hesitant and only 10 percent do not plan to return. According to the UN, as of April 3, the number of Ukrainian refugees exceeded 4.2 million.

This thesis is spread by the Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels The Center to Counter Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine warned that another attempt by Russia to prepare an information field to justify war crimes and an attempt to intimidate the population against the background of redeployment of occupation troops to Donbass and the south of Ukraine. "A similar disinformation campaign in the Russian media was recorded on February 27 to spread panic among the population. The enemy reported alleged Ukrainian provocations with phosphorus in Gostomel. On March 25 and April 2, the Kafirs used phosphorus in ORDLO. Then the Kremlin media tried to shift responsibility for the use of banned weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces," the report said.

Letters are sent to Ukrainians with calls to overthrow the government allegedly from the defenders of Mariupol. The letters come from Volodimir Azov's email volodimir_azov@justiceua.org. "GromadaVostok now" reported that the email was created on March 22, 2022. The domain is registered in Iceland, the registry address is Icelandic Prutnya Museum, and the mail service host is Mexican. The letters are written in Ukrainian, but with a lot of mistakes. In particular, the media drew attention to - "capitalshow", "shanovnyy Anastasiya", "for the sake of" and "po nad use".

Social networks spread manipulative messages that the mailing from "Ukraine" with a link to mywar.mkip.gov.ua is a phishing attack. "Do not open, delete this in order to obtain data", the purpose of the mailing is "to obtain data (contacts and chats in messengers)" - said in messages that were distributed to Ukrainians in social networks. In fact, the Ukraine account, from which the mailing is performed, belongs to the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection. The website mywar.mkip.gov.ua was created by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine so that citizens could tell their war stories to the world.

Putin especially stressed that they were not doing it for money. The BBC Arabic Service found out that Russia has deployed 14 recruitment centers in Syria to send Syrians to the Donbass. Eighty percent of them go to Ukraine to feed their families: All of those who agreed to tell journalists about themselves said they were going to their deaths, but saw no other way to feed their families in the war-torn country. Many of them have no combat experience, and none of them go to Ukraine "for the sake of the idea" - only for money, meaning they are mercenaries, not volunteers. The groups that recruit mercenaries offer 1,500 euros per month (other publications say $300 per month). Even earlier it became known that Syrian generals sabotaged the sending of regular units of their army to Ukraine, although representatives of the Russian army insist on it.

According to the Command of the Air Forces of the AFU, such information is spread in the media and social networks. They say that Ukraine does not need to close the sky, because our forces are already enough to win. In fact, this is a manipulation, because the advantage in the air is a decisive factor in this war.

"'Airspace control has played a key role in all wars since World War II. Air dominance is quick and precise strikes on enemy troops, centers of their logistics support and other important objects, it is an extremely powerful fire support for our own ground troops and naval forces," the Air Force Command of the AFU said in a statement.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, such information cannot be considered true, because Russia is not "withdrawing" troops: the Kafirs are fleeing because they received stiff resistance from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainians. "In addition, the enemy is overturning its forces to the Donbass and is preparing to deliver a crushing blow to the territory of our country from there. Secondly, no agreements have been reached between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. All the stories about the alleged end of the "special operation" are just an attempt to avoid further implementation of sanctions against the aggressor country. In fact, the Kafirs are trying to organize incomprehensible structures on the temporarily seized territories and introduce the ruble into circulation there," the Center said in a statement.